Prime'd and Ready

Author's Rating:

Pros: Beautiful graphics and solid use of the Wii Remote

Cons: Shorter than previous games, lock-on system got irritating

The Bottom Line: 
While the core mechanics haven't changed, the spectacular use of controls and beautiful graphics make for an amazing FPS fit for veterans and newbies alike.

Author's Review
Originally slated as a launch title for the Wii console, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has long been touted as the defining FPS for the console, with gaming news sites and magazines glowing over the short time they had to try the title in action. While the game may have been delayed almost a year, it keeps the polish originally promised and then some.

Story (3.5/5)

Story has never been a big thing for Metroid games, but Retro gives it to us in droves. Metroid Prime 3 is the last of the Metroid Prime trilogy done by Retro Studios, rounding off Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for the Gamecube. It wraps up the story about Phazon, a poisonous substance that is slowly spreading itself across the universe. Samus Aran, our lovely protagonist, and other bounty hunters are called by Admiral Dane of the Galactic Federation to help purge their ship AIs, Aurora Units, of a virus. During the briefing, a Leviathan Seed, carrying Phazon, appears and heads towards a Galactic Federation Planet during an attack by Space Pirates. Dark Samus, thought to have been destroyed at the end of Echoes, reappears during the attack, attacking Samus and the other hunters. After the battle, Samus is outfitted with a "Phazon Enhancement Device" that allows her to use Phazon to boost her attacks.

Samus is charged with removing the Phazon corruption that has spread to surrounding planets through other Seeds by Admiral Dane. To do this, she must go through a variety of environments to make her way to the Leviathan Seeds which spread the Phazon. In the process, she herself is corrupted by the Phazon. Now Samus not only has to work to save the planets from this foreign poison, but her own body as well.

This time around, the story is assisted by NPCs and voice acting, both absent from the first two games. While not frequent, the voice acting seems a rogue element to the title, but is generally well done. It's also nice to have other characters to interact with and receive help from, even if only briefly. Samus is still mute, with the exception of momentary gasps of pain which seem to vary more than the first two games.

While not a strength of the title, it's not a weakness, either. In previous games, the story was told through scanning various objects and lore tablets, allowing you to skip all of it if you really wanted and just plow through the game. It's a little more forced on you this time around, and some cutscenes could not be skipped, but it doesn't detract from the game.

Graphics (4/5)

Let's face it: the Wii severely lacks when it comes to graphics power. This didn't stop Retro from creating a beautiful game, however. Metroid Prime 3 prominently displays artfully created environments, buildings, and enemies. From a luscious jungle with softly falling rain to a city that hovers above the clouds with a very steampunk feel to it, the surroundings in Metroid Prime 3 are different with each room, giving a feast for the eyes. Walls have outcroppings and alcoves, statues appear to be hand-carved as they would be in real life, and the Phazon seems to have a life of its own.

Enemies are also given the royal treatment. They move fluidly, and even enemies closely related to each other are still very different graphically. There do seem to be some minor issues with enemy movement (I witnessed one lizard on Byrro stutter while attempting to jump from the edge of a platform), and while there are some lighting and shadow effects there's nothing much to ooh and aah about.

The intricacy of some things will make you stop and take a closer look, especially gigantic background elements, but the graphics are overshadowed by other games, such as Gears of War. Chances are that you'll be too busy flailing your arms to really notice this.

Gameplay (4.5/5)

Always an element of Metroid games, puzzles make a spectacular return in Metroid Prime 3. The inclusion of the Grapple Lasso and Ship Grapple adds new variety from what would otherwise be the same tried-and-true methodology, but otherwise the puzzles are just hues of the other colors. This isn't to say that they lack challenge or fun, but if you're a veteran to Metroid games in general these won't be anything special. Once again, some of the puzzles, particularly ones involving the morph ball and magnet rails, are just a little too convenient to Samus's personal arsenal; this can be a slight annoyance if you aren't new to the series.

The variety of weapons is one of the largest changes from the original games. While missiles, morph ball bombs, and the requisite beam cannon come standard, Samus's grapple beam makes a triumphant jump to the front. Used only to swing Samus around like a mechanical Tarzan in previous games, the Grapple can now be used as a weapon and puzzle solver. New are the Grapple Lasso, which can be used to wrench objects away from walls or enemies as well as pull things towards yourself, but the Grapple Beam, which can be used to give power to or remove power from items and enemies. In addition, you now have more control over your ship- it can be called in to bomb certain areas or enemies, and used to pick up and place specific objects.

While these are welcome additions to the gameplay, they seem to only make up for the Beam and Missile variety now missing. Gone are the choices in Beams and Missile types: you have but one of each. These are upgraded as the game goes on, but it really cuts down on the amount of strategy required, making the game less for thought and planning and more for point and shoot. This set up does lend itself to the newer gamers and casual gamers, a group Nintendo has been fiercely going after, but will seem "dumbed down" for regular gamers and fans of the first two Prime games.

The visors do make a return- you have your standard scanner, a "ship" scanner used to command your ship, and a visor like the X-ray visor from earlier games. An interesting feature has been added to the X-ray visor- once you get the second (and final) Beam upgrade, you can use it during battle to zoom in on enemies and target their weak spots. For instance, when fighting a heavily armored Space Pirate, if you equip the X-ray visor and lock on it, a sub-screen appears that reminds me of skeleton imaging, and the Space Pirate's heart (or what it might have in place of that) is easily shown. One shot to the pulsating organ and it is down for good. Unfortunately, this doesn't work on all enemies, but it is still a very nice game mechanic.

Controls (5/5)

Now we get to the bread and butter The controls have to be tried to be believed- the controls show exactly how well the combination of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck can work for First Person Shooters, which are sure to be a staple for this console. As a veteran gamer and no stranger to the FPS genre or Metroid franchise, I worked my way through the game with the "Advanced" control set up. This allowed me to lock on to an enemy while still free aiming around the screen, as well as quickly turning around and pointing. The motion sensing functionality of the Wii Remote is not utilized, but the Nunchuck is used for your Grapple Lasso and Grapple Beam. Simply lock on to something with the now-familiar "grapple" icon, swing your Nunchuck forward to latch on, and pull it back to have Samus do the same. This is very intuitive and puts the Nunchuck to good use.

Targeting with the Wiimote reacts superbly, following your every movement. You can change the sensitivity, so if you feel Samus is moving too fast, you can take your time to lean in to it. Like the Nunchuck, this action is very intuitive. In no time you'll be aiming at your target and hitting A rapidly (the game offers the option to switch jump to A and shoot to B, which I decided to do) with very satisfying results. One of the issues, however, under advanced mode is that it is very hard to center your aim. While the system may lock on to the enemy, you have nothing to use as an exact center point, so trying to hit enemies from a distance can become annoying. Turning off lock-on free movement will take care of this, but stop you from aiming as you like while retaining a lock.

Speaking of lock-on, that seems to be the only thing that didn't receive the same polish as the rest of the game- the game easily loses a lock when an enemy goes too high or too low relative to your HUD, and up and down movement is not as fast as side to side. Some enemies are made to move quickly and evade the Lock (such as flying Space Pirates), but this happens for enemies that are just jumping from one ledge to the other. It would have also been nice to have the system move the Lock from one enemy to whatever you are pointing at (assuming it is lockable), rather than the usual move of locking on to the next closest enemy.

Extras

Once again building on previous titles, Metroid Prime 3 offers a very large amount of extras. Instead of unlocking content upon reaching certain portions of the game or completing a certain percentage of the game, the extras this time are unlocked by "tokens". Tokens are given out by defeating bosses, adding entries to your Logbook, or completing objectives. "Friends Vouchers" are also given for special actions, which can be sent to friends via WiiConnect24, who can use them to unlock other extras; they can also send vouchers to you to use. As an example of how to receive these, Samus can turn into a ball and Boost around a group of 10 robots to destory them. This awards you a friend voucher for "Bowling for Bots".

While it's nice to see Nintendo using the online features of the console, it can be annoying for those of us without Wii-owning friends to trade with or who can't get their wireless connection to work (as is my case), thus locking out some of the content completely (barring cheats). Some items that can be unlocked are in-game music, art galleries, and a screenshot system to take in-game photos.

One thing to note is that while Metroid Prime 2 offered a basic Multiplayer option, this is absent in Corruption. I don't consider this a minus, however, as the Metroid series has long been about personal endeavor and Samus working alone, not fighting other people (Metroid Prime: Hunters being an exception).

Conclusion (4.7/5, not cumulative)

Although this won't do much to change the minds of those who long for the side-scrolling titles, fans of the previous games will love this title, and new comers to the FPS genre will find this to be a very easy title to break their teeth on. While the graphics won't be wowing crowds and some older options are missing, the controls and gameplay are a perfect fit for the console, genre, and title. The title does seem to be shaped closer to the formula used by Bungie's Halo, with which Prime has always competed in sales, but whether this is a bad or good thing I will leave up to you.

One final note is that the game seemed shorter than previous titles. I clocked only 15 hours before finishing it with a 91% completion rate on Normal difficulty. However, I'm familiar with the standard Prime tactics and the Wii Remote, so this is likely the exception more than the standard.